On my flight back from San Francisco I was fortunate enough to be sitting next to Doug Ng, whose’ step mother Carola Ashford started a the restoration of the gardens around Alcatraz as part of a fellowship with the Garden Conservancy. Sadly, Carola passed away last year but the work she started continues to expand under the new director of volunteers. I lived and worked just East of San Francisco for 10 years and sadly never visited Alcatraz as I thought it would be a grim and dreary place, however the pictures below show just how beautiful it has become through the efforts of the Parks service, volunteers and fellows of the Garden Conservancy.